“Crisis, what crisis?” For the Premier, cognitive dissonance continues to be an economic policy. The Provincial government appears more out-of-touch every month as BC faces record numbers of unemployed.

Yesterday, Statistics Canada released its unemployment number for August. The survey report — conducted prior to the worst of the forest fires in the Okanagan — revealed that BC now has over 202,000 unemployed.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of unemployed has increased by 15.1 per cent from August 2002 to August 2003 from 175,700 to 202,200. Since the BC Liberals introduced their tax cuts, unemployment has increased by a staggering 42 per cent with 60,000 more British Columbians without a job. The unemployment rate has gone up from 6.8 per cent in May 2001 to 8.7 per cent this month.

What does the Premier have to say about this crisis — particularly keenly felt in the Interior and Vancouver Island? He denies the existence of the problem. As recently as last week, he cited job creation as proof that his tax cuts were working. According to the Premier, “if you look at key economic indicators such as job creation, housing starts and business investment intentions, British Columbia is well on the way to turning things around for the benefit of all.”

The Government web site argues that an increase of 20,000 in the number of employed in the past year is a “positive economic indicator.” However, the actual number of unemployed increased by almost 27,000 over the same period. Only in periods of severe recession, do the actual number of unemployed increase faster than the number of employed.

There is no question that the BC economic crisis has a number of causes — SARS, the softwood lumber dispute and a higher Canadian dollar have hurt the economic performance in the past year just as the collapse of our major trading partners in Asia hurt BC in the last 1990s. The forest fires this summer will add to these difficulties.

However, it was Mr. Campbell who suggested that marginal tax rates on the wealthy and BC’s environmental and labour standards were at the root of the province’s economic malaise. And he cannot escape his share of responsibility for the growing crisis.

BC Liberal tax cuts have exacerbated the situation. The tax cuts created record deficits: the result, gas tax, sales tax, MSP premium, Pharmacare, tuition fee and dozen of other increases mostly targeting the middle class, youth and seniors. And worse, at a time when the economy was lurching towards recession, the government cut welfare rates, public services and health care, taking money out of the economy and hurting economic growth. Public service cuts were most severe in the Interior, the region facing the greatest challenges.

This past week for example, the Vancouver Island Health Authority announced a 2 per cent across-the-board cut in services to Island residents.

Why have the tax cuts failed to stimulate economic growth to the extent the Premier promised? After all, the government has already borrowed more than $5 billion dollars to pay for them.

Unfortunately, the main beneficiaries of the tax cut — those earning over $100,000 a year and big business — are the most likely to invest their money outside of BC. When middle-income people and small business receive a tax cut or single mothers receive income assistance, they are more likely to spend the money at home, generating greater economic growth here in BC.

Alas, British Columbians earning less than $75,000 a year have seen their tax cut clawed back or eliminated entirely by a host of tax and fee increases. The recent weak wholesale and retail trade performance illustrates that the government has bet heavily on the wrong horse.

Distinguished economist Paul Krugman notes a policy “of tax cuts for the rich, with a few token breaks for the middle class, would generate maximum deficits but minimum stimulus.” This is precisely what has happened in British Columbia.

Two hundred thousand unemployed should be enough to convince the Premier that it is time to change course — to restore the youth jobs programs he cut, make the necessary upgrades to fire protection recommended by the Auditor General, re-establish the forest communities program he eliminated and make major investments now in the Interior. Crown corporations and government agencies should move up spending plans to stimulate job creation and growth. And the Province needs to stop standing by while major employers leave BC communities for better offers elsewhere.

More cuts to health care and education to reduce the deficit and pay for high-end tax cuts are not the answer to an employment crisis.

In the wake of the Interior fires, a new spirit of community is evident in BC. People have come together to make sacrifices to assist their neighbours and communities. Surely, this is the time for the Premier to call on his wealthiest backers to accept a smaller tax cut for the greater good.